A Systematic Study on Software Requirements Elicitation Techniques and its Challenges in Mobile Application Development

Software Requirements Engineering has paved its roots in both industry and academia, as today’s complex systems are programmed to provide efficient user-centric functionalities. This also refers to the emergence of challenges in Requirements Elicitation techniques, approaches, and tools while performing them. Particularly, in the area of Requirements Engineering for software development, a number of techniques and approaches have been observed in literature but for mobile application development, which is different from the traditional software development, has not been discussed much in past studies. Short development cycle, device limitations, and less development time for mobile application development are some of the issues to which there is no ‘silver bullet’ available. Therefore, the Requirement Analysts are in dire need of defined guidelines for Requirement Elicitation in mobile application development. With this study, we aim to provide a detailed overview of Requirements Elicitation techniques and its challenges. We have conducted a systematic literature review by surveying 4507 initial and 36 primary studies. A comprehensive set of 22 elicitation techniques were measured based on quality assessment criteria, including time and cost factors, resource effectiveness, and domain understanding. Furthermore, the challenges in Requirements Elicitation were also grouped into eight different categories based on their applicability. Our study effectively contributes in highlighting Software Requirements Elicitation Techniques and its challenges in mobile application development.

[1]  Prasara Jakkaew,et al.  Requirements elicitation to develop mobile application for elderly , 2017, 2017 International Conference on Digital Arts, Media and Technology (ICDAMT).

[2]  Umar Sajjad,et al.  Issues and Challenges of Requirement Elicitation in Large Web Projects , 2010 .

[3]  Kyo Chul Kang,et al.  Issues in Requirements Elicitation , 1992 .

[4]  Ahmad Hassan Afridi,et al.  Method Assisted Requirements Elicitation for Context Aware Computing for the Field Force , 2008 .

[5]  Barbara Kitchenham,et al.  Procedures for Performing Systematic Reviews , 2004 .

[6]  Robert E. Machol,et al.  System engineering handbook , 1965 .

[7]  Ricardo Colomo Palacios,et al.  A Study of Emotions in Requirements Engineering , 2010, WSKS.

[8]  Björn Regnell,et al.  Requirements engineering challenges in market-driven software development - An interview study with practitioners , 2007, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[9]  H. Flora,et al.  A REVIEW AND ANAYSIS ON MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES USING AGILE METHODLOGIES , 2013 .

[10]  Manju Geogy,et al.  A Scrutiny of the Software Requirement Engineering Process , 2016 .

[11]  Daniela E. Damian,et al.  Stakeholders in Global Requirements Engineering: Lessons Learned from Practice , 2007, IEEE Software.

[12]  Gonçalo Antunes,et al.  Capabilities and Requirements Engineering: Research Challenges , 2013 .

[13]  Michael J. Ryan.  The Role of Stakeholders in Requirements Elicitation , 2014 .

[14]  Shakira Banu Kaleel,et al.  Applying Agile Methodology in Mobile Software Engineering: Android Application Development and its Challenges , 2013 .

[15]  Lene Tolstrup Sørensen,et al.  Requirements on Next Generation Social Networking—A User’s Perspective , 2009, Wirel. Pers. Commun..

[16]  Nik Ahmad Nik Azlina,et al.  ELICITATION STRATEGIES FOR WEB APPLICATION USING ACTIVITY THEORY , 2011 .

[17]  Meghna Verma,et al.  Systematic Review of Requirement Elicitation Techniques , 2014 .

[18]  Bhawna Dhupia,et al.  for Mobile Educational App Impact of Requirements Gathering on Software Development , 2015 .

[19]  Muhammad Younus Javed,et al.  An iterative approach for global requirements elicitation: A case study analysis , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Electronics and Information Engineering.

[20]  Santosh Singh Rathore,et al.  A Methodology for the Selection of Requirement Elicitation Techniques , 2017, ArXiv.

[21]  Swati V. Chande,et al.  A Review and Analysis on Mobile Application Development Processes using Agile Methodologies , 2013 .

[22]  Anthony Finkelstein,et al.  Requirements engineering: a review and research agenda , 1994, Proceedings of 1st Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference.

[23]  Sabrina Marczak,et al.  A systematic literature review on agile requirements engineering practices and challenges , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[24]  Martin Törngren,et al.  Requirements Engineering for Control and Computing Systems at large research facilities: Process implementation and a case study , 2015 .

[25]  Steve Easterbrook,et al.  Communication Problems in Requirements Engineering: A Field Study , 1996 .

[26]  Gary Ford,et al.  Lecture Notes on Requirements Elicitation , 1994 .

[27]  David Coyle,et al.  Designing mobile applications to support mental health interventions. , 2008 .

[28]  Norbert Seyff,et al.  User-Driven Requirements Engineering for Mobile Social Software , 2010, Software Engineering.

[29]  Ulrich Mansmann,et al.  Enhancing requirements engineering for patient registry software systems with evidence-based components , 2017, J. Biomed. Informatics.

[30]  Björn Regnell,et al.  Challenges in Market-Driven Requirements Engineering - an Industrial Interview Study , 2002 .

[31]  Louis S. Wheatcraft,et al.  11.2.1 Getting Started on the Right Foot: Developing Requirements for Constellation's Next Generation Space Suit , 2010 .

[32]  Michael Geisser,et al.  Mobile Technologies in Requirements Engineering , 2007, SCSS.

[33]  Marite Kirikova,et al.  Continuous Requirements Engineering for Mobile Application Development , 2017, REFSQ Workshops.

[34]  Sai Ganesh Gunda,et al.  Requirements engineering : elicitation techniques , 2008 .

[35]  Arif Raza,et al.  Challenges in Requirements Engineering for Mobile Applications for Disabled -Autism , 2013 .

[36]  Nurlida Basir,et al.  Requirements Elicitation Techniques: Comparative Study , 2014 .

[37]  Saeki Motoshi,et al.  Using Domain Ontology as Domain Knowledge for Requirements Elicitation , 2006 .

[38]  Janice Singer,et al.  How software engineers use documentation: the state of the practice , 2003, IEEE Software.

[39]  Waqar Aslam,et al.  Identification of Patterns in Failure of Software Projects , 2017, J. Inf. Sci. Eng..

[40]  Shamsul Sahibuddin,et al.  The strength and weakness of Requirement Engineering (RE) process , 2010, 2010 2nd International Conference on Computer Technology and Development.

[41]  Jukka Kääriäinen,et al.  Requirements engineering Inventory of technologies , 2003 .

[42]  Anitha S. Pillai,et al.  A study on the software requirements elicitation issues - its causes and effects , 2013, 2013 Third World Congress on Information and Communication Technologies (WICT 2013).

[43]  Nadeem Majeed Chaudhry,et al.  Evaluation of Efficient Requirement Engineering Techniques in Agile Software Development , 2013 .

[44]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Requirements process improvement through the phased introduction of good practice , 1997 .

[45]  Abdullah Mohd Zin,et al.  Requirement elicitation: identifying the communication challenges between developer and customer , 2011 .

[46]  Fei Peng,et al.  Why Requirements Engineering Fails: A Survey Report from China , 2010, 2010 18th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference.

[47]  Dirk Timmermann,et al.  Requirements for smart home applications and realization with WS4D-PipesBox , 2011, ETFA2011.

[48]  Alan M. Davis,et al.  Requirements elicitation and elicitation technique selection: model for two knowledge-intensive software development processes , 2003, 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2003. Proceedings of the.

[49]  Mary Beth Rosson,et al.  Effectiveness of elicitation techniques in distributed requirements engineering , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

[50]  Zahra Shakeri Hossein Abad,et al.  Learn More, Pay Less! Lessons Learned from Applying the Wizard-of-Oz Technique for Exploring Mobile App Requirements , 2017, 2017 IEEE 25th International Requirements Engineering Conference Workshops (REW).

[51]  Hafiza Maria Kiran,et al.  Requirement Elicitation Techniques for Open Source Systems: A Review , 2018 .

[52]  Najia Saher,et al.  Requirements Engineering and Its Role in Mobile Telephone Industry Development , 2014 .

[53]  Anthony I. Wasserman,et al.  Software engineering issues for mobile application development , 2010, FoSER '10.

[54]  Natalia Juristo Juzgado,et al.  Effectiveness of Requirements Elicitation Techniques: Empirical Results Derived from a Systematic Review , 2006, 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'06).

[55]  Louis S. Wheatcraft.  4.4.3 Developing Requirements for Technology‐Driven Products , 2005 .

[56]  A. Ahsan,et al.  Investigation and discovery of core issues concerning requirements elicitation in Information Technology industry and corresponding remedial actions (an inductive case study of Pakistan's IT industry) , 2010, 2010 IEEE 17Th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management.

[57]  Jacob Schwartz.  Software Engineering for the Mobile Application Market , 2012 .

[58]  Mateen Ahmed Abbasi,et al.  Assessment of Requirement Elicitation Tools and Techniques by Various Parameters , 2015 .

[59]  Vítor Estêvão Silva Souza,et al.  Requirements-based Software System Adaptation , 2012 .